It is known to provide a passive occupant shoulder belt in which the belt upper end is mounted on the vehicle roof inboard the seat and the belt lower end is mounted on the vehicle door by a retractor at the lower rear corner of the door so that door movement automatically moves the belt between an occupant restraining position and an access position forward of the occupant.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,883 by Keppel et al, granted Aug. 1, 1972, discloses a shoulder belt arrangement in which the shoulder belt upper end is mounted on the vehicle body roof rail by a carriage which is displaced forwardly along a roof rail mounted track during door opening movement to progressively stow the shoulder belt along the roof rail and thereby move the shoulder belt forwardly of the occupant to permit occupant ingress and egress.
The present invention provides a new and improved restraint system wherein a belt stiffener is associated with an uppermost portion of the shoulder belt so that the initial forward movement of a belt-engaging carriage abruptly pivots the stiffened belt portion forwardly from the downwardly depending occupant restraining position to a stowed position along the roof.